Big Daddy- A Character of Tolerance

After rereading the scene in Act II between Brick and Big Daddy in which Big Daddy questions Brick about the true nature of his relationship with Skipper, I was able to see their father/son relationship, as well as Big Daddy’s character, in a different light. The scene is almost comical in a sense. During the course of their dialogue, it seems that Big Daddy assumes that Brick is a homosexual, and takes on the role of this overly understanding and accepting father. As he questions Brick about the nature of his relationship with Skipper, Big Daddy seems extremely tolerant of the possibility that his son may be gay. No matter how many times Brick denies that he is gay and exclaims that homosexuality is wrong, Big Daddy refuses to take no for an answer.

Big Daddy makes several statements of understanding, attempting to get Brick to “come clean” about his assumed hidden sexual orientation. Big Daddy says things such as, “I knocked around in my time…I bummed, I bummed this country…Slept in hobo jungles and railroad Y’s and flophouses in all cities…” (Williams 90). It is as if Big Daddy is encouraging Brick to be a homosexual and desperately wanting him to confide in him about it. Big Daddy states, “Well, I have come back from further away than that. I have just now returned from the other side of the moon, death’s country, son, and I’m not easy to shock by anything here. Always, anyhow, lived with too much space around me to be infected by ideas of other people. One thing you can grow on a big place more important than cotton! - is tolerance! - I grown it” (Williams 94). For a man who comes of quite stubborn and old fashioned, Big Daddy is certainly open-minded with Brick.